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Analysis of the phthalate esters di-(2-ethylhexyl) and di-n-butyl phthalate--DEHP and DBP. respectively-has been carried out by means of (a) high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) in the system silica gel/hexane-dichloromethane (1 : 2, v/v) containing 0.1-0.2 yo of ethanol, and (b) gas chromatography (GC) on 4 % OV-101 on Chromosorb W (HP) at a temperature of 240°C. Detection was done by U.V. absorption spectrometry at 233nm and flame ionization, respectively.The procedure has been used to analyse series of water samples of the Dutch rivers Rhine, IJssel and Meuse. Since the phthalate levels of the samples rapidly decrease with time, extraction invariably was performed without delay at the sampling station. The DEHP values on an average are approx. 1 ppb for all three rivers; for DBP, values of 0.3-0.5 ppb are found for the rivers Rhine and Meuse, while a somewhat high value of 2ppb is reported for the river IJssel. The results obtained by HPLC and GC show good agreement; the former technique is less time-consuming.

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